Ford Family Ties: When ‘Bring Your Child to Work Day’ Leads to Choosing Our Company

Scott Slimak (left) and his son Jacob, who is finishing his last rotation with the Ford College Graduate program.

F-150 Vehicle Engineering Manager Scott Slimak can’t help but feel a little nostalgic on Bring Your Child to Work Day.

Nine-year-old Jacob Slimak with his dad at Bring Your Child to Work Day in 2009.

Sixteen years ago (and a few times since then) he brought his son Jacob to work with him in Product Development. Today, Jacob is starting his fourth and final rotation in the Ford College Graduate (FCG) program and preparing to embark on a career of his own at Ford. It’s an especially poignant moment for Scott, who carried on the Ford legacy established by his grandparents.

“My grandpa worked on the line for over 30 years. He met and eventually married my grandma, who was one of the original Rosie the Riveters. Ford really helped him provide for his family,” said Scott Slimak. “For me to have that history, to be able to influence what we do with products on the road during my own career and then have my son carry that on is a proud moment.”

The entire Slimak family was part of the reveal of the all-new Explorer hybrid at the 2019 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Jacob is third from the right.

Father and son are both engineers. Scott’s focus is vehicle engineering, while Jacob’s passion is software and system design. Jacob said his desire to pursue a career in automotive was influenced by his dad, who often brought Ford and competitor vehicles home over the years for benchmarking purposes.

“He got me involved in the engineering mindset,” said Jacob Slimak. “For as long as I can remember, he would bring vehicles home and ask me what I thought of this or that —encouraging me to point out things that I liked about the customer experience even as a young kid.”

The elder Slimak smiled when he heard his son recalling those days.

“I’m smiling because of my four children, Jacob was the most interested to provide feedback and climb around in the cars in the driveway at night and tell me what he liked and didn’t like about things that mattered to him at that age,” he said. “I had a young engineer adding extra insight.”

The Slimak family with Bill Ford at the 2019 North American International Auto Show. Jacob and Scott are second and third from the left.

When Jacob was 9 years old, his dad brought him to Bring Your Child to Work Day at the Product Development Center. Jacob said he remembers the experience vividly.

“I remember it very specifically because they were using virtual reality goggles in one of the rooms, and I had never experienced anything like that before. I absolutely loved it,” he said.

At one point during one of Jacob’s FCG rotations, father and son worked in the same building in Dearborn.

“That was a unique experience because not many parents can say their kids work in the same company, let alone in the same building,” said Scott Slimak, noting that Jacob was one floor below him. “Even though it was temporary, we used to joke that I could l almost tap on the floor and do morse code to him to say hi. And I had work reasons to be down there occasionally so that made it extra enjoyable to interface with my son in a work-related way.”

Outside of work, Scott and Jacob enjoy working on projects together, like this full-size horseshoe pit complete with drink holders. The horseshoes they use belonged to Scott’s grandfather, who worked on the line at Ford for more than 30 years.

Jacob said he feels blessed to have a mentor at home and a dad at work.

“It’s cool in both ways being able to have open conversations about things that I find technically stimulating at work because I know he’ll be just as curious and interested in them as I am,” he said.